Til Next Time
by BonusParts
Summary: Gaige rides while Axton drives, and trouble follows after. *One-shot free-write inspired by Gr33dsama


**"'Til Next Time"  
**

Their first ride together, Gaige has to tell herself to breathe, for the rapid patter of her heart that makes her hands shake and her insides shudder and threatens autonomic amnesia. But, oh! The thrill of that monstrous, roaring engine between her legs as the rocky canyons and dusty deserts scream by, whooshing past her ears and bringing stinging tears to her eyes.

Her legs can barely support her weight when she finally slides from the pillion seat – nobody calls her a bitch – and her voice can only make a stutter, but Axton laughs and tells her she did great, especially for her first time out, except, "Not so tight, next time."

So, the second time they ride, she puts just one arm around him, squeezing his leather jacket in her mechanical hand while squeezing her trigger with her flesh finger. And the bullets bounce, and the bandits scatter and scream, and the two of them laugh and howl and tear through the camp with the rest of their posse: Zer0 swinging his sword from the seat of his bike like a murderous polo player, Krieg driving wild with Salvador spraying ammo in all directions from the sidecar, and Maya glowing and tossing phaselocks around them like a deadly light show.

When the carnage is done, Gaige still finds it hard to stand for the absence of the bike's rumbling power. But Axton steadies her with a draping arm around her shoulders as he leans close to snicker, "Next time, leave a few for me and the missus, huh?"

With that in mind, their third time out, she holds onto him but doesn't draw her gun, grabbing one handle of his bike, instead. The metal and rubber thrum through her fingers, up her arm, and makes her grin with giddy glee. "Your turn, daddy-o!"

His turret bounces free, spitting ammunition before it's fully formed. A buzzard spins out of control, bursting into flame halfway to ground, and he whoops near her ear, sweet and low and triumphant.

She lets go a second, to wave Deathtrap up from his digital sleep. And the two mechs sweep a spinning wave of destruction around them, leading their bike in a dervish path of bullets and blood ever-growing until it's just them and a bunch of riddled corpses, and the loot at the end.

Neither turret nor robot takes an interest in reward, so it's left up to Gaige and Axton to split it…except Gaige jumps from the bike first, and makes it to the loot chest first, and grabs all the best gear before Axton's kicked his bike steady.

"Hey!" he protests.

"Maybe next time," she teases with a smug smile.

But their fourth ride together, Gaige can barely get the bike under control, and loot is the last thing on her mind. Because Axton is slumped against her back, bleeding out and all over through the massive hole in his leather caused by the giant stalker.

They'd gone after old Henry alone, fresh from a sweet and easy run through a bunch of weak-ass threshers, thinking – stupidly – that the stalker would be just as painless. But Henry was smarter than an average thresher, and she leapt through the turret's bullet barrage and under Deathtrap's claws, swinging her own claws after Gaige, who'd dropped flat just to get out of the way. Axton stopped firing, and, when Gaige looked up, she saw why: Henry had plunged her spiked tail through Axton's torso, pinning him to the ground.

The world went a kind of electric purple, and Gaige remembered yelling and her guns going off and Henry's screeching. And the turret and Deathtrap concentrating fire and flurry. And then Gaige was dragging Axton onto the bike, leaving Henry to get away in favor of the closest help, in Overlook.

Karima finally lets Gaige in to see him. Somehow, his pale lips manage to make that stupid cocky grin of his as he looks up at her and says, "We'll get her, next time."

It's a while until they ride together again, partly because even stim-heals take time to work their magic of enhanced molecular bonding. And partly because both of them seem a little shaken by their run-in with Henry. But mostly because Overlook offers a bit of pastoral peace amid Pandora's craziness, though there's plenty of that, too, with the Hodunks causing trouble with the Zafords and the odd hostile creature attack.

Gaige keeps her eyes on Axton as he tinkers with his turret during the high-sun afternoon. She feels his eyes on her the same as she checks his bike, tightening this, loosening that, buffing and polishing and smoothing the scratches that have built up.

She glances over at him every once in a while. He looks away the first few times, feigning busy-ness. But once she catches him, she smiles, and he doesn't look away again after that.

When they do saddle up onto his bike again, Gaige puts her arms around him not-too-tight, and lays her head to his back, ready for the rising rumble of acceleration. But Axton doesn't push the engine past a purr, just drives them to the remote cliff at the edge of town, the one that looks down into a stalker den below.

The bike thunks to a stop, the engine cool and still beneath them. The next movement comes from him, under her cheek, as he says, "Thanks."

She smirks a little into the leather. "For what?"

Axton lets out a sheepish half-groan under his breath. "You know for what."

"No, I don't," Gaige says, grinning, now. She can't help the playful lilt in her voice, and she doesn't want to.

His leather gear creaks as he turns halfway around in his seat, to look over his shoulder at her. He's smiling, but there's a warmth in his face she can see even in the dim light. "For saving my ass."

She rolls her eyes away with a dramatic drawl: "Oh, _that_."

"Yeah. _That_," he says, equally droll.

She swings her gaze back to his. "Well, next time, you can save mine," she says, and pushes up higher against him, to lean over his shoulder and press a quick kiss to his lips. They're as soft as his bike's metal chassis is unyielding, as warm as his leather is cool, and they make her heart race just as fast as the engine when they ride. And she hopes the next time she feels them won't be a very long time away.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**  
Inspired by Gr33dsama's tumblr AU idea of a rockabilly biker gang version of the Vault Hunters.  
This is more B2 than AU, but I couldn't get the image of Gaige riding pillion behind Axton out of my head, so I had to get this down.  
Just a fast free-write one-off, but I hope you enjoy.

Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and all associated names, likenesses, and places are copyright Gearbox and 2K. Used here without permission.


End file.
